Developer confident of monorail's timely opening
Damar Harsanto, Jakarta
PT Jakarta Monorail is confident it will be able to finish construction of the new monorail on schedule, including the completion of the monorail's "green line", which is scheduled to open by the end of 2006.
"So far, we don't see any significant problems that will hamper the project due to the simultaneous assembling of the cars and the construction of the rail lines," PT Indonesia Transit Central (ITC) director Sukmawaty Sjukur told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.
PT ITC -- comprised of local companies PT Adhi Karya, Global Profex Synergy and PT Radiant Pillar Pacific -- owns a 55 percent stake in PT Jakarta Monorail. The remaining 45 percent stake belongs to British-based consortium Omnico, which includes Omnico Holdings Ltd., Hitachi Asia Ltd. and four technology partners from Singapore.
Sukmawaty said a total of 127 cars would be assembled at Hitachi in Japan at the same time the developer was carrying out the construction of the rail lines here.
"When the construction of the rail lines is complete, we will be ready to import the cars," she said, adding that the consortium would require between 20 and 25 months to finish the import process for the monorail cars.
She also divulged that the developer had obtained about US$150 million (about Rp 1.41 trillion) in equity to finance the project for at least the next three months.
"We will obtain loans in September. The loans will be in rupiah and US dollars," she said, declining to elaborate on the source of the loans.
PT Jakarta Monorail plans to raise the lion's share of the estimated $630 million required for the project, or $480 million, through soft loans.
President Megawati Soekarnoputri presided over a ceremony on June 14 to mark the beginning of the project, with the first pile being driven into the ground on Jl. Asia Afrika in Senayan, Central Jakarta.
However, the Post observed on Sunday that little progress has been made since that ceremony. Along the median strips of Jl. Asia Afrika and Jl. Gerbang Pemuda, construction piles remain stacked up waiting to be driven into the ground. The developer plans to erect eight piles along each of the roads.
PT Jakarta Monorail president director Ruslan Diwirjo said the company had to make some changes in response to noise complaints.
"We are going to use bore piles instead of hammering the piles into the ground in order to reduce the noise .... The change is in response to complaints from the management of the Hotel Mulia Senayan," Ruslan said.
About 900 construction piles will be erected along the 27- kilometer monorail route.
When completed, the monorail will consist of two lines, the 14.8-kilometer "green line" and the 12.2-kilometer "blue line".
The green line, which will have 17 stations, will serve lucrative business areas in the city including Kuningan, Sudirman and Senayan. The blue line, which will have 13 stations, will connect eastern areas of the city such as Kampung Melayu and Roxy to western Jakarta.
The green line is expected to be operational by December 2006 and the blue line in early 2007.
The monorail system will be capable of ferrying up to 270,000 passengers per day, with fares ranging between Rp 3,500 and Rp 7,500 for a one-way trip.